English grammar - Roger Berry 2012

B5.4 Conclusion
B5 The meanings of tense and aspect
Section B Development

Describing the subtle shades of meaning involved in the tenses and aspects is one of the hardest tasks in English grammar. However, much unhelpful information is given out, especially that which encourages the tense = time fallacy, or which suggests that progressive forms are only to do with continuous or lasting events.

The impression is often given that tense and aspect choice relies on objective criteria (such as the timing and nature of the event) which are independent of the speaker or writer. But, as we have seen, the same past event can be described with the present perfect or the past tense according to whether the speaker sees it as relevant or not relevant to the present; or it can be referred to with the past or past progressive according to the impression that the writer/speaker wants to convey. Similarly, stative verbs can be used with the progressive, given the right conditions. Here the concept of construing - the way we perceive the world (or the way we want our listeners to perceive the world) - is crucial, along with the grammatical choices that we have at our disposal. (See the readings in D2 and D4.)

Comments

Activity B5.1:

Wanted here is referring to a present-time ’want’. The difference between it and the present tense is that the former sounds more polite or tentative, while the latter sounds more ’urgent’ and might be inappropriate when addressing one’s professor. What unifies this use of the past tense with its normal use for past time is the idea of distance: either distance in time, or personal ’distance’ between speaker and hearer.

Activity B5.2:

1, though past tense, is future time; 2 is general time (or timeless, because it is a novel); 3 is future time; 4 is a normal past-time use of the past tense; 5 is referring to the past (hear) and future (are getting).

Activity B5.3:

The hostess thinks he is referring to an up-to-the-present experience, but, as his second sentence makes clear, he is referring to an earlier (accumulated) experience.

Activity B5.4a:

The links are a2, b3, c1.

Activity B5.4b:

For example:

a) She’s not here.

b) I know the city well.

c) Your clothes are dirty.

Activity B5.5:

(2) is the one that sounds strange, because when it refers to relationships (or possession) have is a stative verb. However, in (3) and (4) it is a non-stative verb, referring to an action (repeated in 3, in progress in 4). In British English have got could be substituted for have in (1) but not in (3).